"Irazú remains calm [in February]. Fumarolic activity is still weak in the main crater and on the NW flanks. The lake in the main crater has a temperature between 18 and 23°C, and the water surface rose about 1 m with respect to the same date last year. The lake holds an estimated 430 million m³ of water. Acidity and temperature of hot springs surrounding the volcano remain unchanged."

On 17 April Soto added that "tectonic-like seismic events have been recorded in the vicinity of the volcano during 1995 (8 in January, 8 in February, 14 in March . . . )." The hypocenters were located within 20 km of the main crater. The biggest earthquake took place on 21 March, about 15 km from the main crater.

Geological Summary. The massive Irazú volcano in Costa Rica, immediately E of the capital city of San José, covers an area of 500 km2 and is vegetated to within a few hundred meters of its broad summit crater complex. At least 10 satellitic cones are located on its S flank. No lava effusion is known since the eruption of the Cervantes lava flows from S-flank vents about 14,000 years ago, and all known Holocene eruptions have been explosive. The focus of eruptions at the summit crater complex has migrated to the W towards the main crater, which contains a small lake. The first well-documented eruption occurred in 1723, and frequent explosive eruptions have occurred since. Ashfall from the last major eruption during 1963-65 caused significant disruption to San José and surrounding areas. Phreatic activity reported in 1994 may have been a landslide event from the fumarolic area on the NW summit (Fallas et al., 2018).

Information Contacts: G. Soto, ICE.